Online petitions are fine for venting frustrations but in practice, even a million notes on a computer screen do not amount to anything for the perpetrators of the wrongful act.
Look, the movie ‘300’ set an all time record for a March release by grossing over $70 million in its opening weekend and continues to rake in millions of dollars into Time Warner’s coffers even a year later. All despite multiple online petitions like this one which collected over 50,000 signatures.
And let us also not forget the other major chorus of disapproval over National Geographic’s use of the wrong term in their “Atlas of the World 2005” which led to this online petition with nearly 93,000 signatures. In the case of the latter, what really worked to dissuade the publishers was not the online petition but this letter writing campaign organized by NIAC which flooded their headquarters in Washington with actual letters from real people making it necessary for them to respond.
We can pat ourselves in the back all we want for collecting thousands of signatures on this latest petition against Google, but in the end nothing will change until we take meaningful action similar to the one taken against National Geographic. Consider sending your courteous letters of protest directly to Google’s CEO and fax a copy to members of your local media for maximum effect. Here is the address:
Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, CEO
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Phone: +1 650-253-0000
Fax: +1 650-253-0001
